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Review of Curious Minds

In the past couple of days I have discovered why some books are beach reads and some are not. Before coming to the beach, I had started one book with rather dense and somewhat pretentious prose that I was hoping would become better and more engrossing as I went on.

Well, if trying to read that book in my normal surroundings was proving difficult, it became impossible at the beach where your mind is apt to wonder if not sufficiently engrossed in a book. So I gave that one up for a few days and started Janet Evanovich’s (with Phoef Sutton) new book, Curious Minds, which is set for publication on August 16, 2016. Curious Minds is everything that a beach read should be: entertaining, fast paced and witty.

Riley Moon has just earned degrees in business and law from Harvard and she is ready to take on the world, but first she must deal with her assignment at Blane-Grunwald, which is to visit eccentric Emerson Knight who has a major account with the megabank. From the very first visit in which Riley encounters the new housekeeper fleeing the house because she is unwilling to take care of armadillos, the reader knows that an Evanovich roller coaster ride is just beginning.

Emerson wants to see his gold and when Riley tries to dissuade him, Emerson determines that the next course of action is to visit Grunwald management. What would seem to be a simple visit turns into Emerson deciding to search for the missing Grunwald brother and Riley is assigned the task of helping him.

There are murders. There is travel from DC to New York to Texas to Area 51. There is talk of aliens. There is witty repartee.

Riley Moon and Emerson Knight are delightful characters to spend a few hours with. She is down-to-earth but extremely learned, studied in business and law and handguns, and Emerson is very smart but socially alien. Throw in Aunt Myra, Cousin Vernon, and Gunter Grunwald and you have an ensemble worthy of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad (how many mads is that?) World.

I recognize that Curious Minds is not great literature, but it serves a very noble purpose. It makes us laugh and diverts our attention. We can go on a very fun ride without giving up much, if anything. Enjoyment is the thing. Very easily a beach read and a read for when you just need to lighten up life.